Keeping It Frugal

My thoughts about life and money.

About Me

Laura

Through mis-management of my money in my early twenties I learned a lot of life lessons - both financial and personal. After 12+ years of teaching, and 3 years of working as a school-librarian, I moved to Nebraska and found a job outside of school/library with good benefits and okay pay. The move was mainly to pursue the possibility of a long-term relationship ...

Archive for August, 2010

Sabbath morning I woke up feeling yucko and my tooth really bugging me. All day Sunday it got progressively worse. Finally Monday morning came, and I called the dentist and changed my build-up/temp crown appt. from the 21st to today.

Dmontngrey - my tooth is/was cracked/cracking, so a crown should work well enough. If not, then in a couple years maybe I'll have dental insurance again and/or will be in a better financial position to afford a root canal and crown.

I started with a new Korean student today. A girl. She is really super sweet. So now I have Korean boy and Korean girl. They both are about the same age I think, although one is a Junior and the other is a Senior.

With the 3 students I now have, I can make up to $900 a month. A fourth student will probably start next week, and will give me another potential $100/ month.
Four students would be a total of about 12 1/2 hours a week actual tutoring, plus another 6+ hours commute. That is about perfect with my school load this semester.

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Any ideas on how to keep mats from forming in a Maltese's fur? Before Buddy was groomed, I brushed him 3 or 4 times a week and he never had a mat. Since he was professionally groomed, within three days he had at least two mats. I was able to work one out, but the other one was too set. He now has a total of four mats, one fairly good size. (I took care of him while mom was on her trip, and we're keeping him till after his vet appt. on Friday.)

I forgot to mention in my earlier post this week that I finally went to the dentist. I had X-rays, exam and cleaning done for $150. He (dentist) told me that I do need a crown on the one tooth, but he didn't see the need for any fillings. (previous dentist said I had two cavities ...). He also is not going to charge for the buildup - a savings of $150. I can pay for the crown in two installments. I was pretty impressed with him - previous dentist was a friend of family and was offering no breaks.

So today in the mail I got two checks from my dad. The one he sends every month for my phone bill, and another check to pay for the dentist. My brother, grandma and dad all agreed to go in together for the dentist.

If my income stays steady this year, I may have savings left over. I will then repay them. At least for the dentist - I doubt my dad will accept anything back for all the other help over the past year ++. Probably will need to set it aside to help mom out eventually.

Wow! I'm not complaining or anything, but why couldn't some of these people have showed up this summer when my income was completely dried up?

It looks as though I have a possibility of two more students. One would be directly before the 6th grade boy on Wednesdays, and the other would be directly before Korean boy on M, Tu, Th. Roughly an extra $90/ week.

If all of them come through, then I will just have to see if it is more than I can handle along with class work.

Classes started Thursday. Nothing is due until September 10, and the last assignment is December 9. One class looks like it will be a real doozie, but the other two look doable.

While my mom is on her trip, she's letting me drive her car. A 2010 Mazda 6. My car is a 1997 Honda Civic. I jokingly told her that she's going to have to fight me to get her car back. A working radio, windshield wipers that work at all speeds, cruise control, alerts when there's a car beside you when you want to change lanes .... luxury. The keyless entry and start up thing took me a while to get used to, but I'm really enjoying that aspect as well.

Too bad a Mazda 6 will probably never be in my budget category, even once I get a full-time job again. Too many other priorities.

Today I had my first tutoring session with Korean boy for the new year. We didn't really do any tutoring - just went around and met his teachers, exchanged email addresses, and then I followed Ms. G home (where we'll be doing our sessions.) By that time it was about 5 p.m. So ... $125.

Ms. G asked me if I'd be willing to work with her daughter a couple nights a week on Algebra 2 after finishing with Korean boy. (Korean boy, along with three other Korean students are staying with Ms. G.) After making sure she understood that I'd probably have to be refreshing my memory at the same time ... I said I'd charge just $15/hr instead of the $25, which she felt was fair. The library has a TON of Algebra learning books which I will be acquiring for myself shortly. An extra $30/week is worth it.

We had the one of the hottest days so far today -- 108 degrees. But we also just had a short thunderstorm - hopefully that cooled things down a bit.

I stayed with them, and then this morning took them to the airport. They're going to FL and then to Detroit. I get to drive my mom's car while they're gone -- soooo nice to listen to the radio again while I drive. Oh, not to mention ... cruise control! It's going to be hard going back to my car ....

On Friday I met with the Korean boy I tutored last year. At the end of the year I was under the impression that his parents wanted to cut back the number of sessions, and wanted a reduced price. So, I was going in there prepared to offer a lower price for 4 days a week. Thankfully they seem to have changed their mind!! 5 days a week at the same rate as last year.

However, his schedule doesn't offer an 1 1/2 hour block this semester. So, three days a week I'll be picking him up from school and going to his house. The other two days we'll be working through his lunch period and study hall. We had to do it this way due to my already having another student one afternoon a week, and not wanting to tutor on Friday afternoons.

He was diagnosed with Narcolepsy in Korea, and now takes a pill. He says that it has made a HUGE difference. I'm actually looking forward to working with him without the struggle to keep him awake and focused.

On Thursday this week I'll be meeting with two of my mom's tutoring students who may become mine.

So, I may possibly have 4 tutoring students on a regular basis this semester. Perhaps 5 -- if the student I meet with on Wednesday afternoons finds someone else who'd like me to work with them on the same afternoon (I offered a discount for both parents if they found someone for the same afternoon). That will make my schedule completely full. Due to taking 9 hours of graduate classes + completing the practicum requirements (and the classes all seem to have multiple research papers and other large projects) I don't think I could handle more and keep my grades to the level I expect of myself.

Classes start on Thursday, so I'll know more about what I have ahead of me over the next few months.

I mentioned previously that I upgraded to the lowest level of Netflix unlimited service. (Previously I was grandfathered in to the 1 disc/2x month plan.) Gotta say that I am loving it! I have been making much use of the streaming video (so has my stepdad - via the Wii). Anytime I think about maybe wanting to go see a movie in the theater - even at the $1 theater, I just remind myself that I already have an arsenal of movies at my service - and there are a TON that I haven't seen yet.

The best one so far I've seen recently was "Up." It was just so adorable! I'm thinking of seeing "The Boy with the Striped Pajamas" ... but am wanting to make sure I see it when I'm feeling good....

For the most part I am really enjoying teaching Sabbath School (same thing as Sunday School, just on Saturday). The one most irksome thing is never knowing exactly how many are going to be there - and the second most irksome thing is kids arriving at all different times - some even with 20 minutes left. For example, last week we had 8 kids. The most so far, and two of our regulars were missing. So, this week I was prepared for ten, but had materials enough for 12. We had 5 show up.

Oh well. The kids that do come regularly seem to really enjoy class -- I've had a number of the parents tell me that their child loves it. The ones that come regularly are also starting to get more into the song service part. At first I think they weren't sure about it - because the people who taught a combined Primary/Juniors class didn't do song service ... Two of the girls love the song "When He Cometh" almost as much as I do. And yesterday one of the children observed that most of the songs in our handmade songbook (thanks to not being able to afford multiple copies of the real songbook) have some kind of motions to go with them. That was totally on purpose. (It currently has 16 songs in it -- but I'll be adding a few more this week. One that one of the students requested yesterday, but I wasn't sure on the words. I'm using book rings to hold them together so it's easy to add new songs.)

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Oh, almost forgot!

I posted three more textbooks on half.com last week, and two of them sold within an hour of my posting them!!

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On Tuesday I have a dentist appointment for a cleaning, exam and x-rays. I have the feeling that I'll be quickly making an appointment for a crown -- the one tooth has been really bothering me lately. I wish I didn't have to repay for the x-rays, but the dentist I went to previously only did half my mouth, and that was quite a while ago, so the situation may have changed/worsened since then.

This morning I told B that tomorrow would be my last day doing the Craigslist postings. What I told him was that with school starting up next week (for the high-school boy I tutor) I wanted to be sure to NOT be tired when working with him. (he's the one with narcolepsy - if he's falling asleep, and I'm nodding off ... not good!) But the really truly reason is that I just am not at all comfortable with what he was asking me to do. It wasn't anything illegal, just not very ethical. He really is a nice person, and I know that what he was having me do was just a way of trying to drum up business ... but money or no money, I couldn't keep doing it and feel right.

This afternoon I had my first appointment with a tutoring student who came about because of the flier's I left at the high-school last May. Really sweet kid. I'll be working with him mostly on writing process and some on grammar. Getting him better at doing timed essay writing's is really the main thing his mom wants me to focus on.

On arriving home, I checked my email and found out that I had made another sale at half.com. The last of the six textbooks I had posted on there in April. I was really somewhat surprised that it sold, because it was an older edition than the required textbook for the course. Nonetheless, I am quite pleased. Now the only textbooks I have are for my summer class and Fall classes. Which reminds me, I should list my summer class text.

I decided to bump up my Netflix subscription to the current basic plan. Previously, I had still been grandfathered in to the $4.99/mo plan 1 disc 2x month. What finally convinced me to go the few dollars extra a month, was the Starz Channel. Besides the normal streaming videos/tv programs, the Starz Channel has a number of fairly recent movies. Including "Letters to God" which I was number 89 on the wait list at the library for, and was not available as a DVD on Netflix itself. I could have purchased it for $15 at Mardel's ...

So, like I said, I upgraded to the very basic unlimited 1 at a time plan. That also meant I could get the Wii Disc to stream the movies onto the TV where the Wii is hooked up. I received that disc today (free) and have it set up. Very cool.

Last night I ate at Ci Ci's Pizza with my sign language class. Our instructor had invited two of the Deaf members. Wow! Was I ever rusty??!! I was trying to sign "My brother went skydiving this morning" and I couldn't remember the sign for brother! (And yes, my ever loving brother DID go skydiving on Tuesday ... in Las Vegas. He and a friend flew to Vegas Tuesday morning, skydived, then flew back to CA Wed. morning.)

Our instructor is having knee surgery on Monday, but is planning on starting an intermediate sign language class in late October or early November. That means I need to refresh my sign language knowledge quite a bit. I hope I'll have time to go by then ... will just have to make sure I do!

Buddy had his fourth set of shots on Tuesday. At first (before I left to go to the SL mtg) it wasn't affecting him too much. But then by the time I got home, he was a zombie. My mom had come by to sit with him while stepdad went to a meeting. She, and my stepdad, both tried to take him outside to do his business and he just sat there. Then he yipped when they tried to pick him up. When I got home I was able to pick him up (without yipping) and got him to do his business outside. Lovely little command word "Hurry Hurry!" He was pretty much zonked though till about 6 a.m. this morning. But when he woke up, he had all his usual vim and vigor back, plus a bit extra.

I ran through a full tank of gas in less than a week. The two extra trips to L**********e probably didn't help any. (One was helping the school's principal/teacher get ready for school, and the other was the sign language meeting.) I have another trip to L planned tomorrow to help the principal/teacher, and then hopefully my gas usage will go down to a more normal amount.

Friday afternoon I got a call from a parent who wants a tutor for her sixth-grade son. He needs help with writing - sounds like he *can* write, just has trouble coming up with ideas to respond to random questions. I meet with her and her son on Wednesday! This phone call is a result of the flier I left with the registrar of the school where I tutor the Korean boy. Yay!! It may work out to one or two hours a week at $25 each -- so $25 - 50 a week.

This morning one of my Primary Sabbath School kids brought me this really sweet picture/creation she had made for me. It looked like she'd really spent some time on it. I was reminded of one of the better parts of teaching. The sweet unexpected gifts from the kids.

Friday afternoon I turned in the final assignment for my summer class. No more classwork until August 26! (Of course then I start 9 credit hours + needing to make sure my requirements list is completed by November. So will be muy muy busy!)

I'm liking my job for the most part (writing and posting Craigslist ads) and have gotten paid twice now. However, once school starts and I have the Korean boy again, as well as the new tutoree, I will be quitting. (It was billed as a temporary job - with possible longer term. It also only pays 7.55/hr. So, compare doing one hour of tutoring for $25, or 3 1/2 hours of writing posts for Craigslist ...)

Mixed Bag Good/Sad:

Mom left last night. But since Buddy has a vet appointment on the Tuesday we had discussed leaving him here till after that. Plus mom is going out of town the last week of August and wanted me to take care of Buddy then too. So in the end, she asked me to take care of him through the end of August when she gets back from her trip.

Picked up mom and stepdad from the airport today. They've been gone the past 12 days to Canada and Alaska.

Long and short of it is that my mom decided during the trip that it is 100% finale over. She had already made arrangements for an apartment before leaving "in case" that was her final decision.

So ... this time we now have Buddy. She left it up to me on whether he'd stay with me until I left, then go to her, or have her go ahead and take him with her. I opted to let her go ahead and take him now. I think it probably is best for him. A year from now would be even worse. She has a "friend" who is nearby the apartment who works from home and will keep Buddy while Mom out and about tutoring, unless she can take him with her.

Maybe its better this way. It would really have been much harder to say goodbye to him a year from now.